Editing Romanian grammar (section)

===Case===
Romanian has inherited three cases from Latin: [[nominative]]/[[accusative]], [[dative]]/[[genitive]] and [[vocative]]. Morphologically, the nominative and the accusative are identical in nouns; similarly, the genitive and the dative share the same form (these pairs are distinct in the personal pronouns, however). The vocative is less used as it is normally restricted to nouns designating people or things which are commonly addressed directly. Additionally, nouns in the vocative often borrow the nominative form even when there is a distinct vocative form available.

The genitive-dative form can be derived from the nominative. For feminine nouns the form used in the dative/genitive singular is most often identical to the nominative plural, for example {{Lang|ro|o carte}} ''–'' {{Lang|ro|unei cărți}} ''–'' {{Lang|ro|două cărți}} (a book – of/to a book – two books).

If the noun is determined by a determiner other than the definite article (an indefinite article, a demonstrative, an indefinite [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantifier]]), then the genitive-dative affixes are applied to this determiner, not to the noun, for example {{Lang|ro|un băiat}} ''–'' {{Lang|ro|unui băiat}} ('a boy' – 'of/to a boy'). Similarly, if the noun is determined by the definite article (an [[enclitic]] in Romanian, see that section), the genitive-dative mark is added at the end of the noun together with the article, for example {{Lang|ro|băiatul}} ''–'' {{Lang|ro|băiatului}} ('the boy' – 'of/to the boy'), {{Lang|ro|cartea}} ''–'' {{Lang|ro|cărții}} ('the book' – 'of/to the book'). Masculine proper names designating people form the genitive-dative by placing the article {{Lang|ro|lui}} before the noun: {{Lang|ro|lui Brâncuși}} ('of/to [[Brâncuși]]'); the same applies to feminine names only when they don't have a typically feminine ending: {{Lang|ro|lui Carmen}}.

In usual genitival phrases such as {{Lang|ro|numele trandafirului}} ('the name of the rose'), the genitive is only recognized by the specific ending (''-''{{Lang|ro|lui}} in this example) and no other words are necessary. However, in other situations, usually if the noun modified by the genitive attribute is ''indefinite,'' the genitival article is required, as for example in {{Lang|ro|câteva opere '''ale''' scriitorului}} ('some of the writer's works').

Romanian dative phrases exhibit [[clitic doubling]] similar to that in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], in which the noun in the dative is doubled by a pronoun. The position of this pronoun in the sentence depends on the [[Grammatical mood|mood]] and [[Grammatical tense|tense]] of the [[verb]]. For example, in the sentence {{Lang|ro|'''Le''' dau un cadou părinților}} ('I give a present to [my] parents'), the pronoun {{Lang|ro|le}} doubles the noun {{Lang|ro|părinților}} without bringing any additional information.

As specified above, the vocative case in Romanian has a special form for most nouns. The tendency in contemporary Romanian is to use the nominative forms, however. The traditional vocative is retained in speech, however, especially in informal speech, or by people living in the countryside. It is seen as a mark of ''unrefined'' speech by the majority of city-dwellers, who refrain from its usage. The forms of the vocative are as follows. (Note that the vocative does not have both definite and indefinite forms. The following rules are to be applied for the indefinite form of the nouns):

* Singular feminine nouns and proper names ending in an unstressed '''-ă/-a''' take the ending '''-o''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|fat'''ă'''}} → {{Lang|ro|fat'''o'''}} ('girl!'). <small>Some popular plurals are different, though:</small> {{Lang|ro|Maria}} <small>→</small> {{Lang|ro|Mări'''e'''}}<small>''!'' ('Mary!').</small>
* Singular feminine nouns ending in an unstressed '''-e''' take the ending '''-eo''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|punt'''e'''}} → {{Lang|ro|punte'''o'''}}''!'' ('bridge!'). <small>Sometimes, the ''e'' is dropped altogether.</small>
* Singular feminine nouns ending in a stressed '''-a''' take the ending '''-auo''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|nu'''ia'''}} → {{Lang|ro|nu'''iauo'''}}''!'' ('stick!').
* Singular masculine and neuter nouns ending in a consonant take the ending '''-ule''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|băiat}} → {{Lang|ro|băiat'''ule'''}}''!'' ('boy!'). <small>The vocative for animate nouns is sometimes formed as if the noun were a proper name:</small> {{Lang|ro|băiat}} <small>→</small> {{Lang|ro|băiet'''e'''}}<small>''!'' (see below).</small>
* Singular masculine and neuter nouns ending in unstressed '''-e/-ă''' take no extra ending ('''-Ø''') e.g. {{Lang|ro|frate}} → {{Lang|ro|frate}}''!'' ('brother!').
* Masculine proper names take the ending '''-e''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|Ștefan}} → {{Lang|ro|Ștefan'''e'''}}''!'' ('Stephen!'). <small>Some words also experience some change in their vowels (</small>{{Lang|ro|Ion}} <small>→</small> {{Lang|ro|I'''oa'''ne}}<small>''!'' 'John!').</small>
* All plural nouns take the ending '''-lor''' e.g. {{Lang|ro|mere}} → {{Lang|ro|mere'''lor'''}}''!'' ('apples!').

Here are some examples of nouns completely inflected.

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan=3 |
! colspan=6 | Without a definite article
|-
! colspan=2 | Masculine
! colspan=2 | Feminine
! colspan=2 | Neuter
|-
! Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural
|-
! Nominative<br />Accusative
| rowspan="2" | {{Lang|ro|băiat}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjat]}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Lang|ro|băieți}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjet͡sʲ]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamă}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamə]}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Lang|ro|mame}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmame]}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Lang|ro|ou}} <br />{{IPA|[ow]}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Lang|ro|ouă}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈowə]}}
|-
! Genitive<br />Dative
| {{Lang|ro|mame}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmame]}}
|-
|}

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan=3 |
! colspan=6 | With a definite article
|-
! colspan=2 | Masculine
! colspan=2 | Feminine
! colspan=2 | Neuter
|-
! Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural
|-
! Nominative<br />Accusative
| {{Lang|ro|băiatul}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjatul]}}
| {{Lang|ro|băieții}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjet͡sij]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mama}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmama]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamele}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamele]}}
| {{Lang|ro|oul}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈo.ul]}}
| {{Lang|ro|ouăle}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈowəle]}}
|-
! Genitive<br />Dative
| {{Lang|ro|băiatului}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjatuluj]}}
| {{Lang|ro|băieților}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjet͡silor]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamei}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamej]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamelor}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamelor]}}
| {{Lang|ro|oului}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈo.uluj]}}
| {{Lang|ro|ouălor}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈowəlor]}}
|-
|}

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan=3 |
|-
! colspan=2 | Masculine
! colspan=2 | Feminine
! colspan=2 | Neuter
|-
! Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural || Singular || Plural
|-
! Vocative
| {{Lang|ro|băiatule/băiete}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjatule, bəˈjete]}}
| {{Lang|ro|băieților}} <br />{{IPA|[bəˈjet͡silor]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamo}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamo]}}
| {{Lang|ro|mamelor}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈmamelor]}}
| {{Lang|ro|oule}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈo.ule]}}
| {{Lang|ro|ouălor}} <br />{{IPA|[ˈowəlor]}}
|}